Over the last few weeks, a family of pink flamingos has made Jacksonville their home. No, this is not some sinister invasion reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s cult classic, “The Birds,” but rather an ingenious attempt at raising money for a worthy cause.“We just wanted to do something different; something that had never been done here before,” explained Elisha Wood, children’s director at First United Methodist Church, who came up with this novel approach while surfing the internet. “Every year, we do the same old cookie cutter projects to raise money and, while they have always been good projects for us, I felt like it was time to jazz things up a little.”
Taking the idea from other civic organizations around the country, Wood contacted Royal Trading Company and secured the family of flamingos for their migration to Jacksonville.
With flamingos in hand, Wood held a sealed bidding campaign to see where the exotic animals would perch.
“What we did,” explained Wood, “was have people in the church bid for the flamingos. The highest bidder won, with no one knowing what the bids were.
The twist in the operation is that the highest bidder gets the luxury of saying where this family of plastic poultry will flock.
“Over night,” noted Wood, “we went to the chosen family’s home and set the birds up on their front lawn. When they woke up the next day and went outside, they were greeted by their colorful visitors.”
The chosen family then made a bid of their own, or donation to the cause, and selected another family to receive what has been known throughout the nation as a “Southern trailer park treasure.”
“The flamingos have stayed at homes anywhere from 30 minutes to one week,” explained Wood. “Everyone has been really receptive to it and it has gone over a lot better than we ever expected it to.
“It has just been a lot of fun.”
The funds from the project, which has already raised well over $500, will go into a scholarship program to help children pay for summer camp at Camp Sumatanga in Gallant.
“All of the kids involved with our church program,” explained Wood, “will be given a percentage of the funds, based on how much money is raised. Kids do so many things these days and it costs so much, that we thought it would be nice to help out with some of those costs.”
Wood noted that the project which began in March, caught fire at first and then died down. Lately, however, interest has sparked again and the program is rolling again.
“The interesting thing about this,” explained Elizabeth Renfroe, the current surrogate family for the flamingos, “is that the program was designed to help elementary-aged children, and the flamingos have only ended up at one house with elementary children.”
Anyone looking to participate in the program can contact the church office (435-6021) and get on a waiting list.
“If someone who has the flamingos pays their donation to get rid of them but does not know where to send them,” explained Wood, “then we can send them to the first house on the waiting list.
“We are probably going to do this a couple more weeks, depending on demand.”
